


Take a Day to Break Away

by orphan_account



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Gen, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 18:53:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7450285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan's stress pushes him a little over the edge. Arin to the rescue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take a Day to Break Away

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill from my tumblr @i-am-avacado. Follow me. Shameless plug.

Today is one of those days. One of the random days where the philosophy "everything that can go wrong will go wrong" rang truer than a church bell on Sunday morning. And of course, this particular fate had to fall on a major recording day. Game Grumps with Danny and Arin till noon, Steam Train with Ross and Brian until five, then Grumpcade with Arin, Ross, and Danny till ten.

They never even made it past phase one. The technology gods have decided to fuck with Arin and Danny particularly harshly today.

"Oh, great," Dan mumbles to himself, tugging at another wire. He tried to take them out and plug them back in, futilely hoping that would solve the problem. Alas, no. All it did was erase any and all footage they had managed to record today.

"Are you fucking serious?" Dan calls from the wire cord trap he caught himself in. 

"Fuuuck. Yeah, it's all gone," Arin replies as he clicks through the computer. He turns around, staring at Dan for a second before getting out of the chair to help him.

"Son of a bitch!" Dan yells, yanking the wires off of him before Arin gets to him. "Why? Fucking...why TODAY? Of all days?!"

"Dan," Arin starts. He had never really seen Danny like this before. He never gets super vocal when he got angry. Dan's anger is very internal. He usually goes home or even asks to hold someone's hand. But this whole...thing Dan had going on right now made the competition for "hey I'm grump" skyrocket. At this rate, he could replace Arin by morning.

"No, fuck it. Fuck it Arin, I'm done." Dan stands up, walking out of the grump room, through the studio, and into the general office. "I need to go home. I'm done today."

Arin follows Dan into the office. The usual chatter dominates the otherwise silent room as people go this way and that way doing this thing and that thing. Barry fiddles with a 3-D cube on his computer. Kevin is toying with a few episodes of Dark Souls, trying to sync the audio before putting in the signature orange grump boarder around the footage. Ross is slaving away at his drawing tablet, remorselessly shading the hair of some girly character in a swim suit. Suzy has a note pad in front of her. She stares at it intently as she absentmindedly taps her pencil on the end of the table. Brian can be heard in the other room, tapping away at his keyboard. Brent and Jack are conversing about something Arin can't hear. Everyone is doing something.

"Dude, just take a second, okay?" Arin tries to tell Dan. He also wants to keep his voice down so he won't cause a scene. 

"No," Dan says firmly, loud enough for every one to hear. Kevin even takes his headphones off and turns around. "I'm sorry dude. I am. I'll even fuckin pull an all nighter tomorrow but I can't do it today alright? I'm fucking.." He runs a hand through his brown curls. "I don't know."

"You alright Dan?" Suzy asks from her perch on the couch. 

Arin nods for him, gives Suzy a motion that says 'give us a second', and places a soft hand in the middle of Dan's shoulder blades.

"Come in here." Arin leads Dan back into the grump room.

Arin makes careful sure to shut the door behind them, so no wandering ears can hear what is being said. Thank God for soundproofing. Actually, thank Ross and Suzy for soundproofing. It was their idea.

Dan and Arin stand awkwardly in the middle of the room for a second as the silence builds like a brick wall.

Arin takes a preparatory breath through his nose, filling his lungs with the air in the room. The air that also includes the dust and pollen and stale scent of fritos and the unmistakable smell of his own shirt. He lets it out slowly, wishing to clear the gunk out of his brain before talking. He makes a motion with his hands to Dan, indicating the empty space between them.

"Alright," Arin starts. "What's wrong? What's...What's the issue here?"

Dan opens his mouth as if he were ready to speak. But the only thing that comes out is a long sigh as he drops on the grump couch. 

Arin plops next to him, sensing the cue for him to be quiet. 

His friendship with Dan had been the one in a million kind of friendship; he knows Dan's mannerisms and vice versa. He knows Dan's favorite color and favorite food and game and all his weird kinks and man crushes and all the things they discussed on grumps that Dan spewed out, thinking that Arin could never remember so much information. But that isn't true. Arin likes to listen. And he likes to listen to Dan. He would to listen to Dan rant about the origin of yarn if he could because Dan's voice just gives you that feeling. Like the feeling of listening to soft rain at sunset or the feeling you get when you're driving alone at night. The one deep in your chest that you can't explain. You have to experience it.

Though, why does that matter? Key phrase, 'they discussed on grumps'. If they say anything on grumps, Arin learns it, but so do the thousands of lovelies who watch the show. What makes knowing Dan's favorite color so special?

But there is also another key phrase. 'Dan's mannerisms'. Stuff that the lovelies don't see. Can't see. Stuff he has all to himself. Like the way Dan holds his knees under his blanket when it's cold. Or the way his tongue sticks out between his teeth a little when he's smiling really big. Or the the way he always leans into Arin when he laughs. 

Those are Arin's. Actually, they're Dan's, but they are Dan's that are specifically saved for Arin. Sure, he has other friends. It would be so selfish to consider himself Dan's top friend, let alone his only one. But there are things that no one has ever seen Dan do. Only Arin has seen. 

And one major thing that Arin picked up along the way that probably no one else has, is that Dan needs time. When Dan is introduced with something new, or whenever he is hit with a bunch of information at once, he needs some time to think. Comprehend. Find a way to react to it.

And when Dan needs time to figure out the right thing to say, Arin gives him time. Someone like that, who always thinks carefully before speaking...That's what makes him so easy to befriend. To talk to. To listen to.

After maybe three or four minutes of steady quiet and measured breathing, Arin dares to break the silence. He turns his head to face Dan.

"Dan," He says. "Is there anything I can do?" Dan casts a lazy gaze at Arin and he knows the implied statements were heard. 'You don't act like this, ever. What's wrong? Let me help you Dan, please, you're never angry like this. You never yell or outburst in front of anyone, let alone the whole office. Please let me help you.' Arin almost wants to reach out and take Dan's hand in his. 

Again, Dan opens his mouth to speak. He looks at Arin and licks his lips, trying to form the words. The struggle is evident on his face, in the creases of his forehead.

Before Dan gets a word out, tears burn at the back of his eyes. A single sob pushes his face in his hands as he weeps. 

"Woah," Arin says. He says it more as a reflex because he never expected Dan to just fall over crying. But that's what happened just now. Dan the man just broke down in front of his friend. His long hair forms a curtain around his face, so Arin can't see him crying, but he can hear it.

It's a very somber cry. It isn't a loud sobbing filled with fickle phrases like 'i did my best' or 'i can't do this anymore'. It's a quiet weeping interluded with sniffles every few seconds.

Arin wants to hold him. He almost goes for it, but Dan finally musters the strength to speak.

"Give me...gimme a second, Arin, okay?" He asks in a voice that sounds eerily like shattered glass. Arin nods, though he knows Dan can't see, and he goes back to waiting again.

In the few minutes of Dan-brand crying, Arin looks back at all the times he had cried. Arin usually cries alone. But he cries HARD. He cries like a fucking animal. He never likes to cry in front of his friends though. In fact, he thinks the only other person he's cried in front of besides his own blurry reflection is Suzy. And the only reason for that is because, hello, they live together and are married.

He doesn't think he's ever cried in front of Dan. Not in a serious light. Sure, tears have been shed at the video games slowly crushing his soul during grumps, but that's always in good fun. He realizes that outside of that, no, he hasn't cried in front of Dan. And Dan hasn't cried in front of him. Until now.

So, Arin doesn't really know what to do about the situation. He doesn't know how to handle a crying Dan.

Well, as was his philosophy throughout high school: wing it.

But he doesn't really know how to wing it, because he dropped out of high school, so he's back to waiting. 

After maybe five minutes of sitting there while Dan cries, he finally hears Dan take in a shaky breath.

"Arin," He says, lifting his head up. Dan pushes his hair out of his face as best he can, and he wipes the streaks of wet that line his cheeks. Dan's eyes are red and puffy, and he looks absolutely exhausted.

"I don't know what's wrong with me dude," Dan says. He takes in a huge breath, letting it out in a big huff. "I'm just...I'm like...fucking...god dude, I don't know."

"Are you just stressed out?" Arin asks. He picks his words carefully, trying to sound ready to help. Because he is. 

Dan thinks for a second, then slowly nods. "Y-yeah. I...I think that's it. I mean, working on the new NSP album is really messing me up. We've got so many ideas that just won't stay together and the Starbomb album is like, constantly on my shoulder. Plus I've had a bunch of extra shit I've been having to do. And then with Grumps. It's...I think today it all fell down on me and the fucking recording shit just toppled me over."

Arin had figured that Dan was stressed. But this stressed? Dan hasn't been like this since Guild Grumps, and even then, Dan didn't cry. He just went home.

However, an idea pops into Arin's mind.

"Hey," He says. "How about tomorrow, we just get away from everything for a day. Me and you. I know a place we can go. It's a back road we can just drive down about ten minutes from town. No one ever goes on it. I found it a while ago and I go on it all the time. Suzy doesn't even know about it."

Dan sniffles. "But we don't even have tomorrow. We have to do grumps."

"Dan, I may be your boss, but I'm your friend first. We have episodes we can squeeze in there tomorrow. And on Monday, we can start fresh. How bout it? We can even bring shit to have a picnic. Would you wanna do that?"

Dan studies the floor for several moments, no doubt moving around the imaginary calendar in the back of his mind. He calculates the pros and cons of missing a whole day of work to go on a relaxation binge. Eventually, he looks up at Arin and smiles through his tears.

"I would love to do that."


End file.
